Sharecropper contrat, 1867

With the ending of slavery after the Civil War, the question of where these newly freed people would go began to arise. One option that sprouted up was the idea that these previous slaves would work on land for wages that they would need to support themselves. Although this was a common idea, blacks had only recently been freed, and did not want to be subjected to persecution again. Due to this, the idea of sharecropping emerged as a compromise. Landowners divided their plantations into plots roughly 20-50 acres each that were suitable for farming by single families. In exchange for this, sharecroppers agreed to raise a cash crop and give a certain portion to the landowner. Although this seemed like a good system, the dependency and poverty grew as this was not a way that these freed people could better themselves and their families.

Contracts were drawn up in which the specifics of this deal were disclosed. My primary source was a sharecropper contract from 1867 between Isham G. Bailey and the freedmen of Cooper Hughs and Charles Roberts on January 1. Located in the Gilder Lehrham collection  within the Institute of American History, it allows insight into what was required in return for the contracted land. A translation of the contract was provided by the institute in which the exact number from each family was listed as well as their gender. For this particular example, these families were required to grow forty aces of corn and twenty acres of cotton. For their services, half of the cotton and a third of the corn was to be received. It was also made clear that Bailey was in charge of this property, and that these families must follow his rules.

Farming was not the only required tasks to living on this land. Towards the end of the contract, Charles Roberts and his wife Hannah were agreeing to bind themselves to the washing and ironing, as well as all other necessary house work for Bailey and his family during that year, but would receive fifty dollars in money for their services. Cooper Hughs agreed to taking care of the catte and to milking the cows twice daily, as well as to do the churning when it was deemed necessary.

While these families did have more freedom than before, they were still doing that tasks that the southern families did not wish to do. Yes, they received pay but were still being worked very hard. From what I gathered from this primary source, these contracts were unique based on each individual, and varied from one to the next on a yearly basis. What began on the first day of 1867, this contract would not expire until the year was over.

source:

http://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/reconstruction/resources/sharecropper-contract-1867